[opendtv] Re: The Weather and do these people have NO shame?
- From: "John Willkie" <JohnWillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:19:00 -0700
So, just how much do you pay per year in federal taxes that goes to the
Department of Commerce's National Weather Service?
I 'm a libertarian: I tend to think that everything beyond national defense
and protecting the borders is wasted money.
I also believe that you are complaining about something that costs you about
$2 per annum, if that. I suspect that you get more than $2 value out of NWS
per annum.
In the event of paid-only weather news, if your state, county or city did
not get sufficient alert about potential weather conditions, YOU PERSONALLY
could be out of pocket many thousands of times that $2.
A case in point: November 1, 2003, an idiot who was hunting and felt
himself lost lit a small fire to signal his position to friends (or so he
said at the time.) Unfortunately, it was during a Santa Ana condition in
Southern California. (dry, dry, dry on the humidity scale and very hot)
The result of that little fire is several dozen deaths and (at last check)
about $4 billion of property damage, without talking about collateral money
damages (no insurance, insurance company dithering.)
This was only one of many fires that started up in Southern California that
day; it was the largest fire in California history, in terms of property
damage, lives lost and acres burned.
The Santa Ana condition started up about two hours before the fire was lit.
Sure, we all know how dangerous wildfire can be in arid So Cal, and the
idiot was too stupid to detect the unique Santa Ana conditions.
With a Santa Ana, he went from playing in a tinderbox to playing with
gasoline.
The idiot recently pled guilty, after losing the ability to get the case
transferred out of the region. He will be in jail a long time.
If the idiot had tuned into KOGO (which uses NWS data) before sstriking the
match, this tragedy might have been avoided.
Oh, and YOU PERSONALLY will pay much more than $2 per year, for many years
to come, because of the Cedar Creek fire, due to direct federal outlays, and
due to people who have many, many things to write off as a result of that
fire.
John (are the embers still falling?) Willkie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mitch Cardwell" <mitchrc@xxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 3:39 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Re: The Weather and do these people have NO shame?
> I think this is foolish and Santorum is a tool, but I couldn't help but
> notice your remark: "free weather information is a necessity for many."
> If it's a necessity then it has value, they ought to pay for it and
> they are, through their taxes. The problem is, so am I and I have
> absolutely zero need for it. We paid for the infrastructure, but the
> Feds could sell that off to a private entity to reimburse us for that
> and then only those who need weather data would have to pay for it.
>
> Why should my tax dollars be funding free weather data for the
> airlines, tv stations and the Weather Channel?
>
> Mitch
>
>
> On Apr 26, 2005, at 10:36 AM, John Willkie wrote:
>
> > Accuweather is in State College, PA, so Rick Santorum is the Senator
> > from
> > Accuweather.
> >
> > I have issues with governmental agencies competing with private
> > insterests.
> > However, Accuweather and TWC entered this environment, and now they
> > want to
> > change it. Also, free weather information is a necessity for many.
> > After
> > this goes through, many people -- I don't mean farmers; they pay for
> > much
> > more detailed weather/climate informaton than anybody else -- will
> > only be
> > able to get weather information from free radio and tv.
> >
> > Let's call it for what it is: greedy overreaching by commerical
> > interests
> > that want to change the rules of competition that were in place when
> > they
> > entered the marketplace.
> >
> > John Willkie
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
>
> - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
>
> - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
